BHUBANESWAR: The ECI on Thursday issued notification for election to 37 Rajya Sabha seats in 10 states including four from Odisha, which go to polls on March 16.
Assembly secretary Satyabrata Sahu, also returning officer for the biennial polls in Odisha, said nomination forms will be available from Thursday between 11 am to 3 pm. The last date for filing nominations is March 5, while scrutiny will be taken up on March 6. The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is March 9. The polling will be held on the Assembly premises on March 16 between 9 am and 4 pm, and vote counting will be held at 5 pm the same day.
Meanwhile, BJD’s RS member Sasmit Patra took six sets of forms from the Assembly secretariat fuelling intense speculation. Out of the four vacant seats, the ruling BJP has the numbers to win two seats. The BJD can win one seat with its strength of 48 in the Assembly.
Its two suspended MLAs have not made their preference open. Congress and CPM, with 14 and one members in the House respectively, do not have numbers to win a seat. The RS polls were necessitated as tenure of four members from Odisha, Sujeet Kumar, Mamata Mohanta (both BJP), Niranjan Bishi and Munna Khan (both BJD) comes to an end on April 2.